Metroid other M story plot discussion

[Caleb89sw]

On the same note as myself, when Samus is by herself and around people she doesn't really know/dont care about her as much, she's quiet and we see her as "badass" and "loner-like". I'm the same way with the popular kids at school. But when i get around people i know/i'm comfortable with I get talkative and i embrace my emotions more. So how is not the same for Samus because she's around Anthony and Adam again. She just sort of doesn't feel the need to keep that, almost, Superman persona for the public anymore because Adam and Anthony are there (they don't care if she's Superman or something else because they already have respect for her) and she becomes herself/lets the supressed side out.

On that same thing, why are people upset about Samus craving a little approval from Adam/wondering what he thinks of her and all. Hasn't anyone ever been mad at someone else and then when they finally aren't mad they go "I wonder what that looked like to them? I wonder how *I* look like to them? Wow what I said/did was really stupid.." I do that all the time after I calm down from being mad and I think Samus AND Adam did. Just throwing that out there.

I think one of the main problems people have about this is Other M humanized Samus. People don't want to see that. They want to see an emotionless "Boba fett" kind of character that we saw in Metroid Prime and smash bros. series. There's nothing wrong with that. I prefer that side of her myself.

The thing is, she's human. The funny thing is about humans is at some point, they act human as well. Especially someone with such a checkered past as hers. I actually like the fact she has emotions. Some people say they prefer video game as just an avatar they can place themselves in. I don't really like that idea. Because it makes these legendary video game characters such as Mario, Link and Samus no better than a random mii at Wii sports. Some characters need more characterization than others. We certainly don't need to give Mario and Link voices or tragic backstories, but when it comes to people like Samus, I encourage more and more development of her character.

[KingBroly]

Other M it comes across as sexualization, not humanization, either due to the forced nature of the localization or the total lack of context for situations going on. Also, people wanted someone who was in control of their emotions, and Samus in Other M clearly wasn't. Why? Because that would have been consistent with what Samus has been in the past. And even if she's not supposed to be, it should be explained as to why it fits with the rest of the series. Not to mention the whole situation with who may or may not be evil.

At the same time, there isn't that sense of her being part-Alien in the script, even slightly. There is a HUGE chunk of Samus' story missing from Other M. roughly 11 years. The only indication you know Samus is a hero is her Ship, her Suits and Weapons because they are series staples. But for a first-time player, you'd be unimpressed and likely wouldn't want to play another Metroid game.

[LesserChozo]

Wait, I'm confused, now. Are you using anime as a realistic depiction of human interaction and behavior?

People call it sexualizing because A) she's "submitting to a man", and B) she's being emotional. Honestly, those are the two main complaints I keep hearing.
Seriously? A)She's submitting to a person of higher authority who has a greater understanding of the situation. Keep in mind that Samus was not given that mission, she crashed the party. Granted the whole thing was exaggerated a bit, but I applaud Sakamoto-san for the attempt.

B)Samus wasn't raised by humans. I know that seems like a cop out excuse, but there's no way to know how exactly she was raised. Add to that the fact everyone she's ever cared about is dead, or will die. So, she's either dead inside, which people seemed to think, or she's an emotional time bomb. The Bottle Ship mission was a much more complicated situation for her, for various reasons already stated, and her inner self was beginning to conflict with her outer self.


Also, Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein. It's been a while since I read it, but basically it's about a human who was raised by Martians from birth, then brought back to Earth. Needless to say, he doesn't quite fit in, but he does meet a few people who are willing to accept him for who he is, not just what he can do.

Unlike Samus, however, his Martian mysticism attracts a number of followers and grows into a massive new religion. Unfortunately, it doesn't end well. It's no coincedence that the title is a quote from the Bible.

[FacelessGriffin]

Wait, I'm confused, now. Are you using anime as a realistic depiction of human interaction and behavior?

I congratulate you for even understading this whole conversation that much. My personal reaction has been this:

[KingBroly]

Wait, I'm confused, now. Are you using anime as a realistic depiction of human interaction and behavior?

People call it sexualizing because A) she's "submitting to a man", and B) she's being emotional. Honestly, those are the two main complaints I keep hearing.
Seriously? A)She's submitting to a person of higher authority who has a greater understanding of the situation. Keep in mind that Samus was not given that mission, she crashed the party. Granted the whole thing was exaggerated a bit, but I applaud Sakamoto-san for the attempt.

B)Samus wasn't raised by humans. I know that seems like a cop out excuse, but there's no way to know how exactly she was raised. Add to that the fact everyone she's ever cared about is dead, or will die. So, she's either dead inside, which people seemed to think, or she's an emotional time bomb. The Bottle Ship mission was a much more complicated situation for her, for various reasons already stated, and her inner self was beginning to conflict with her outer self.


Also, Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein. It's been a while since I read it, but basically it's about a human who was raised by Martians from birth, then brought back to Earth. Needless to say, he doesn't quite fit in, but he does meet a few people who are willing to accept him for who he is, not just what he can do.

Unlike Samus, however, his Martian mysticism attracts a number of followers and grows into a massive new religion. Unfortunately, it doesn't end well. It's no coincedence that the title is a quote from the Bible.

I'm mainly using it as somewhat of a general consensus of what I've read elsewhere. It's the same thing, but people use it for some reason. I guess it's a 'American Developers would never do such a thing because it is beneath them' sort of thing. But if they did I wonder if they'd call it anime or stereotypical. Probably the latter since it sounds more sophisticated, but in reality it's a sub-context for racism.

In Other M it comes down to Bombs, Missiles, and Equipment. The unexplained stuff. You explain that, people stop their bitching about it, for the most part anyway. Same goes for Ridley, unexplained, people get angry.

[Hawk's Eye]

Im sure glad Lesser Chozo and Caleb are thinking straight. true this conversation has gone down hill....King Broly thinks his same dumbass "elephant in the room" points are valid. there was no sexualization or whatever except the usual things fanboys see.

also i will agree Samus does stick out but thats because in Brawl they gave her "normal" slender features (few curves though) and slight broad shoulders but they made her a tad barrell chested in Other M. meaning her ribs stick out a little sorta like a mans....im the same way and its not always attractive ">.>

[KingBroly]

I'm not arguing that she's sticking out because she's the only woman there or because she has a bigger ass. I'm arguing that she's sticking out because I get the sense she's trying to be something she's not, hence the lack of propery imagery to back up the things she's saying. Her actions would backup what she says and vice versa.

She'd wear standard gear instead of her Zero Suit, she'd suck it up and give Adam the ye olde thumbs up from the start. She'd essentially try to not stand out in any way possible, but she does, and in various ways. And then you just throw in all of the talking avoiding herself and past. But until you get that other side, the side where you say 'she's an alien' we won't really get it.

[Chris]

Why would she wear standard gear when her own gear is superior?

Also remember that she is no longer part of the GF in M:OM, I doubt she kept her GF standard issue equipment when she left...

She is just tagging along, she was just cruising around till she gets the distress signal, checks it out and finds out Adam and co are conducting some mission at the same place, she decides to tag along and Adam reluctantly allows her to do so.

In Adam's own words she's a "Galactic Saviour" of course she's going to stand out from the crowd, she's Samus Aran!

Where in the game are these moments she is trying to be something she is not?

[KingBroly]

Why would she wear standard gear when her own gear is superior?

Because she was in the army...

Also remember that she is no longer part of the GF in M:OM, I doubt she kept her GF standard issue equipment when she left...

I'm talking about when she was in the GF. In Other M, she's how you say...out of line at the beginning? Literally, I mean.

In Adam's own words she's a "Galactic Saviour" of course she's going to stand out from the crowd, she's Samus Aran!

Where in the game are these moments she is trying to be something she is not?

You have to realize that certain things about Samus' past were revealed throughout the game for the first time, namely her shrieking Ridley's name in horror and the fact that Samus defeated the Space Pirates; the fact that Adam was listening in the whole time leads me to believe he may be learning this stuff for the first time, at least with Ridley.

[LesserChozo]

I'm not arguing that she's sticking out because she's the only woman there or because she has a bigger ass. I'm arguing that she's sticking out because I get the sense she's trying to be something she's not, hence the lack of propery imagery to back up the things she's saying. Her actions would backup what she says and vice versa.

She'd wear standard gear instead of her Zero Suit, she'd suck it up and give Adam the ye olde thumbs up from the start. She'd essentially try to not stand out in any way possible, but she does, and in various ways. And then you just throw in all of the talking avoiding herself and past. But until you get that other side, the side where you say 'she's an alien' we won't really get it.

OK, we keep assuming that she was trying to "fit in." Maybe she wasn't; at least not when she was a kid, starting out in the GFed Army. Everyone else saw her as this upstart kid with a chip on her shoulder and a fancy power suit. Maybe she was trying to prove she was more than that, that she had her own opinions that mattered, that she was worth more than just the suit. Perhaps she would have gone without it if she could; it's very likely that the suit is so integrated into her system and ingrained into her consciousness that she can't work without it. Maybe the feds gave her an army issue suit, but she was unable to wear it.

No, they're not going to go into detail explaining this in the game, because A) it's more than necessary for the story involved, and B) it's moot.

[KingBroly]

But how did everyone know what she was? She didn't tell anyone about what she wanted other than Adam, presumably. Given my limited knowledge of the GF, I'm guessing they treated her like another piece of meat. We also don't know what that chip on her shoulder was, or when she picked it up. Presumably she had it before she signed up there.

[HYRUL3]

This is getting pretty redundant.

We still don't know a lot about her past. She was part of a special squad and probably had special privileges for being awesome.

[LesserChozo]

But how did everyone know what she was? She didn't tell anyone about what she wanted other than Adam, presumably. Given my limited knowledge of the GF, I'm guessing they treated her like another piece of meat. We also don't know what that chip on her shoulder was, or when she picked it up. Presumably she had it before she signed up there.

We haven't seen her recruitment. All of the flashbacks in Other M seemed to take place well after Samus had been in the army for a while. It's very possible the feds did "treat her like another piece of meat," but no doubt her unique qualities showed through rather quickly. I imagine she would have had to earn her position on Adam's team.

[Zeroº]

You wanna know why Other M is such a good lead-in to Fusion?
It's because Other M is about Samus coming to terms with her human side, much like Fusion is about Samus coming to terms with her more alien side.

Think about it. Samus is in the presence of humans of questionable intent the entire game. Samus only has flashbacks about her interactions with humans. Samus explores a ship of human construct that is being taking over by an alien force. Samus is attempting to discover/destroy said alien force. Everything on the ship that isn't human is trying to kill her. Even some humans are trying to kill Samus. One human even turns out to not even be human. (Seriously, Melissa has to have had a huge impact on Samus, seeing as how she was a very dangerous weapon packed into an innocent-looking body, and because she was the embodiment of what Mother Brain wanted since Samus first arrived on Zebes [an actual body that could emotionally relate to others].) There was also the human reaction to Ridley and Samus' breakdown in Sector Zero*. Other M was made to help us get to learn about Samus and her relation with humans. It also teaches her the important lesson that it helps to keep something of a distance from the humans, because they are often scheming and rather evil.

Compare this with Fusion, which has Samus struggling with her identity in a whole new way. She's got even more alien goop running through her veins than ever before. Then she's jettisoned to a ship that has been overrun with evil space parasites that only she can kill/consume. One of the first enemies she encounters? Zombie humans. Even more telling is the emergency that occurs in Sector 3 (Pyr), where Samus shoots a human without blinking an eye. Sure, he ends up being an X-parasite, but the point still remains. She shoots him without any hesitation. That's something she learned in Other M: If someone is doing something untrustworthy, shoot first and consume the remains- er... sort out the details later.

The problem with all of this humanizing in Other M is that the art direction was more in the vein of sexualizing Samus. Those heels, dat ass, moley-moley-moley, the bondage straps, the extended use of the Zero Suit, those proportions... It resulted in a conflict between art direction and story direction. A sad state of affairs that afflicts a lot of video game.

*About that Sector Zero scene: Samus looses her suit, which was her emotional barrier, and almost gets sucked off by a Metroid. Adam (who idiotically shot Samus in the first place) kills the Metroid (let's just forget that he was gambling on its freezability). Adam then explains to a suitless, emotionally-available Samus that she's all that and that he's gotta die in order for her to keep being all that. His death was the death of the old Samus. When she puts her suit back on after he goes "Weeeeeee-aaauuuggghh!?" in Sector Zero, she's a new person that has fully reconnected to her human roots. She even stops having so many flashbacks, because she doesn't need to rely on them anymore. Adam's death is when she stops living in the past and starts living in the now. ...I've derailed from my point.... eh, oh well, this is just as good.

[LesserChozo]

Very nicely said, Zero. And quite fitting to your current avatar. "Subtlety!!"